by With Stonehenge, Avebury and Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire is the English county most associated with Neolithic stone circles and barrows. Dorset, its neighbor to the south, doesn’t have anything on this scale, but it does have an ancient quarry – Glenna Cloch – and a number of smaller but equally atmospheric archaeological sites surrounded by winding footpaths.
Our day out has maximum atmosphere. We park in the village of Portesham, a former mining community where boulders can still be seen on the main street: the ground above us is shrouded in mist, obscuring the winter scene.
We continue north-east of the village, up a stony path towards the Hardy Monument, named not for the Dorset writer and poet but for Thomas Masterton Hardy, Nelson’s deathbed companion. The tower was designed to resemble a naval spyglass and tower above the ground, its Victorian brutality visible for miles.
We take the path that leads to an exposed plateau over which the drones pass. There we find the Hell Stone
To the south, there are sweeping views of the coast, from the 14th century church of St Catherine at Abbotsbury which stands above Chesil Beach. Then comes the brackish lagoon of the Navy, with its ridge of sparkling stones, and across the bay is Portland, still a center of quarrying. Instead of climbing Black Down towards the Hardy Monument, we pass a roofless stone barn and take the path that leads to an exposed plateau above which a buzzard beats. There we find a stone inscribed with the words: “To the Stone of Hell”.
Hellstone is a neat burial chamber with a few gray sarsen stones and a slab above. It’s perfect, with a little room to get into. Actually it is a bit too perfect: around the same time as the Hardy Monument was completed, the Victorians decided to “Improve” the Hell Stone, and the upper slab was placed on its open chamber.
I am a little apprehensive about these interventions, but musician and author Julian Cope, writing in his magisterial book The Modern Antiquarian, describes the effect as beautiful. In any case, this was always a very human landscape, where people lived, worked and made changes. The south of England was settled early, and these uplands with thinner soil were the easiest to farm and more forgiving of crops, especially in winter. We meet a few people on our long walk, but this was once a busy place.
Reaching the lane heading north, we came to Glenna Cloch, the center of this ancient landscape, a large dry bowl of land created by retreating ice ages, dotted with boulders like static sheep. This was the natural quarry from which stone circles and hummocks were made in the area. Much of this nature reserve is open access so we are allowed to explore the stones.
Last year, a Neolithic polished stone, or polissor – a boulder with a smooth and slightly concave top – was found by volunteers clearing the scrub, a rare find. The immovable stone is large, which has fueled speculation that the valley was once a working area, where people would have to lick their tools.
I have met people who say the Kingston Russell stone circle is a better place to watch the sunrise than Stonehenge
Heading back through the valley, we take a quiet lane and then a path heading north-west along the edge of the field where a cow is gently munched by seagulls and a few cattle rustlers, just one of the latest migrants to these shores. Beyond the birds and the cows, and over a new stile, we find the Gray Center and its Likes. It is likely that this long barrage was once more impressive in scale, and although the tomb was probably opened by 19th century antiquarians, we know very little about their discoveries. This was before the professionalization of archeology by Augustus Pitt Rivers, after whom the Oxford museum is named. Still, the Gray Center and her Colts have a presence, sitting in a corner of a field where sheep graze.
We could retrace our steps at this point on a shorter walk, but the Kingston Russell stone circle is less than half a mile away, a low circle of stones towards the top of a broad hill. Even through the fog the views are dramatic. This circle is remote and modest, but I have met people who say it is a better place than Stonehenge to watch the sunrise at the summer solstice.
A loop back through the valley below, past farm buildings, joins us to the Ridgeway. Making our way back east for six we came to the tiny stone circle of Hampton Down, right on the path. If I was a little skeptical about the Victorians reorganizing the Stone Hell, then they weren’t the only ones. In the mid-20th century, with a little more sensitivity, the Hampton Circle stones were replaced in what were believed to be their original positions. We return towards Portesham through land of deep hollows and medieval field systems, their ridges still clearly visible.
No single walk can cover all of the Neolithic archeology here. At Winterbourne Abbas, on the busy A35 north, is the Nine Stones circle, which folklore attributed to the devil, his wife and seven children; and I have heard of at least one “lost” stone circle, described by the 17th century writer John Aubrey.
There may have been others as well, their stones being mined for more pressing practical needs. But recently the power of the stone circle was acknowledged when a new henge, with a car park, was built near the Hardy Monument.
It was completed for the summer solstice sunrise of 2018, when the rising sun first hit a gap in the stones, striking the single stone in the middle. Those present, who included a wizard and an engineer, were relieved and delighted at their success, as their Neolithic ancestors must have been.
Google route map
Start/end Portesham, Dorset, near Abbotsbury
Length: 9 miles
Time 4-5 hours,
Difficulty: moderate, few stiles
Map OS Explorer OL15
Track a GPX route on the Ordnance Survey website
The IS pub
The Kings Arms in Portesham offers a main of chalk stream trout and local venison goulash alongside bar room favorites such as burgers and fish and chips. I also enjoyed an excellent pint of Tiger Tom Ruby Mild from Cerne Abbas Brewery. For takeaways, Duck’s Farm Shop in Portesham (open daily) sells all manner of picnic supplies.
The rooms
The pub’s three rooms, Chesil, Jurassic and Hardy’s (after the novelist), are in soft neutral palettes.
Rooms from £91 B&B, kingsarmsportesham.co.uk
Jon Woolcott is the author of it A true Dorset (Serene, £9.99) To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
